Introduction to MathLAN

Goal: The purpose of this laboratory exercise is to introduce some capabilities of MathLAN and the World Wide Web.

1. Log onto the Linux system.

2. If you wish, you may change your password by typing password in an terminal window. (If no terminal window currently is visible, you may create one by clicking on the picture of a terminal, found on the bottom control panel.) After you have typed password in the terminal window, the machine will ask you for your old password and your desired new one.

3. Prepare to utilize the World Wide Web by clicking on the Mozilla Foxfire icon (the picture with blue globe at the bottom panel of the screen).

   [For those interested, note that the Mozilla organization distributes several browser products. Foxfire is one of the most up-to-date versions. The Mozilla browsers are all competitors of Microsoft's Internet Explorer; none of Microsoft's versions are designed for Linux, however.]

4. The Computer Science Department maintains both an internal home page and an external home page.

   • The internal Computer Science home page zero-one.xhtml normally appears first when you start a browser on MathLAN.
   • The external Computer Science home page, http://www.cs.grinnell.edu may be found from zero-one.xhtml by clicking the link on the left for the Department front door.

5. Scrolling down the home page for the Department of Computer Science, click on the line The Mathematics Local-Area Network (MathLAN) in the Resources section. Next click on the MathLAN computer use policies link, to read the current rules and regulations regarding the use of computers within this departmental network.

6. Go back to the internal Computer Science Home Page by clicking on the Back button at the top of the Mozilla window. Scroll down to find the link Tutorial: Computing: Facts, Misconceptions, and Ethical Issues to find basic information for this course. Then click on Labs and Lab 1 to find this lab.

7. Move back to the Computer Science Home Page. Then, scroll down to find the entry Front-door pages. After clicking on this link, click on the link for the Grinnell College front door.

8. Follow the ITS link to find a a reference to the College's Academic Computer Use Policies What similarities or differences to you find between the policies for using MathLAN (step 5) above and the policies for using general college computers?

9. Explore the Grinnell College Home Page, by clicking on various highlighted entries. For example, find Campus Offices, then Registrar, then 2008-2009 Schedule of Courses Information, and finally Fall 2008 Finals Schedule to determine when the Tutorial's final exam would be (if the course were to have a final exam).

10. Move back to the Grinnell College Home Page by clicking on the Back button at the top of the Mozilla window. (You will need to go back several screens, so click Back several times.)

11. Investigate access to Burling Library by clicking on Libraries.

    • Try accessing the library catalog by clicking on Library Catalog.
    • Check for all books by Henry Walker, by clicking on an author search Walker, Henry
    • Prepare for a new search by going back to the Library Catalog .
    • Now check for all books with the title, "The Tao of Computing," by clicking on a title search and entering Tao of computing
    • Experiment with other options in the catalog.
    • Finish with the catalog by returning to the Library Home Page.
12. My home page is http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~walker, where my full name is given as Henry MacKay Walker. Use the Internet to find out what you can about me, without paying money for background checks or other reports. (Getting such reports might be fun, but that is not part of this lab — I'm just not that interesting!) As in all academic work, you should report where you found what data.

13. Go back to the Computer Science Home Page for Grinnell College. Now follow the links to "Faculty", then "John Stone" and "a collection of links".

14. Follow the link W3C HTML Validation Service, in the "Services" section. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) sets standards regarding how Web materials should be displayed in Web browsers. When Web pages conform to these standards, authors can expect that their Web pages will appear appropriately on all Web browsers.

15. Check that this lab conforms to those standards.

    • Type the URL for this lab
      http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~walker/courses/tutorial.fa08/labs/lab-intro.shtml
      into the "Address" field of the validation page.
    • Click the Validate this page button.
    • Describe the response returned by the validation service.

16. Note that a W3C validation marker appears at the bottom of this page, highlighting conformance to this standard.

17. Finally, go back to the Computer Science Department's external page, and go to the link for "General Information" for visitors and prospective students. The department hopes that these pages address questions of people who may not be acquainted with computer science at Grinnell College. As incoming students, you are in a particularly good position to provide feedback on these pages. How well do these pages work?

    • To what extent do you think these pages cover information that might be of interest to prospective students? Are all likely questions answers?, What is missing? Are there topics discussed that you think should be omitted?
    • Are there sections that should be revised or edited for clarity?
    • The style of these pages is different from the style of the department's home page. What advantage(s) or disadvantage(s) do you see for one style or the other?
    • What suggestions do you have for improving this site?

Work to be Turned In

• Your written answers to steps 8, 9, 12, 15, and 17

http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~walker/courses/tutorial.fa08/labs/lab-intro.shtml

created 18 August 1997 last revised 14 September 2008
For more information, please contact Henry M. Walker at (walker@cs.grinnell.edu)